1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a decorative plate prepared by using a negative or a positive photographic film and a process for preparing the same, and particularly to a decorative plate in which a pattern is formed on a metal plate by plating and a process for preparing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
The appearance of an image or a pattern formed on a metallic decorative plate or card is particularly good when the plate or card is formed having a substrate with a stainless steel surface. The quality of the appearance is due in part to the metallic color of a plating layer formed on the stainless steel surface, and in part to the degree which the plating layer adheres to the stainless steel. Images or patterns formed on these types of decorative plates are used for name plates, trading cards or the like.
This kind of a decorative plate and a process by which the plate is prepared were previously proposed by the present inventors (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1-306592). The steps involved in the preparation process include forming an ink layer as a masking layer on a stainless steel surface of the substrate, removing an oxidized film on that portion of the substrate's surface not covered by an ink layer and carrying out plating treatment so that a pattern is formed on a portion of the substrate's surface where the coating film has been removed.
One consequence however of using the technique described by the 1-306592 publication, is that image reproduction is limited to what can be shown using a uniformly flat pattern set at one height against a uniformly flat background set at a different height. In other words, the plating deposited over the pattern portion is set in obvious relief against the unplated portion of the plate. As a result, when plating of a decorative plate is performed using negative photographic film, delicate gradations and shadows of the portrait cannot be expressed. Conventional decorative plates, therefore, are similar to metal plates wherein metallic foil is simply deposited onto the plate. The quality of photographic reproduction achieved by these types of decorative plates is at best limited, and does not lend itself to illustrating subtle decorative features.